Live from Podcast Movement: The Decade of Defiance
“Don’t make podcast ‘radio.’”
– Dan Granger, Oxford Road CEO & Founder
This week on the Media Roundtable: Special Edition, we present a rebroadcast of Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger's address from Podcast Movement 2023, "A Decade of Defiance," with participation from Oxford Road founding team members, Gary Brown and Miranda Romano. For the full effect, we highly recommend checking out the video version on YouTube–there are some great visuals along the way you won’t want to miss.
This may be the most important message we've put out to the market to date.
The talk offers insights gathered from hard-won experience and Oxford Road’s first ever Chief Audio Officer Summit held earlier this year. We’re tracing Podcasting’s disruptive origins while taking today’s new challenges (from Brand Safety to AI) as an opportunity to disrupt ourselves again. Because if we don’t, we risk turning Podcasts into “Radio 2.0.” Let’s dig in.
Brokering Trust – “Not everything that is artificial belongs in an authentic medium like audio,” says Dan. Podcasting is an industry built on trust– an intimate connection from host to audience, sharing what’s important to them. What guidelines can we use with programmatic and synth voices to improve the inefficient, genuine connections that make audio special, without destroying it?
Responsible, Not Restricted – One of the best things about podcasts? They give space to voices and communities that didn’t exist in radio. The goal isn’t to create unnecessary restrictions on what people can say but to accurately label who’s being responsible with their platforms. Tools like Seekr’s Civility Score give advertisers an “audio nutrition label” for better transparency about who they’re supporting.
Giving Podcast Its Fair Share ️ ️ – “Podcasting will never capture its full share of media allocation without third party verification,” says Miranda Romano (VP Media Operations, Oxford Road). This, along with listen-through rates and placement transparency, are the pillars of clear measurement standards that will help grow the industry past $2B.
If you were at Podcast Movement in August, this is a perfect opportunity to watch our presentation again, without a negroni induced hangover. If you missed this year’s event, for the full effect, work on getting a negroni hangover, and click below to digest all the industry insights distilled from a “decade of defiance” in the audio advertising industry.